GUAIACUM WOOD GUATAC. 



69 



water a thick, gummy solution. The mucilage is made by addmg 

 3i to Oj of boiling water ; it is a very pleasant application to irri- 

 tated or inflamed surfaces, as in ophthalmia, erysipelas, eczema, &c. 



Mezereon. — (Mezereum, U. S.) 



Product of several species of the Daphne, especially the D. meze- 

 reiim, a shrub three or four feet high, growing m Europe ihe 

 bark of the root is the part directed by the pharmacopoeias, but the 

 bark derived from the branches is generally found m the shops. It 

 comes in strips three or four feet long, folded in bundles, or wrapped 

 in balls ; covered externally with a grayish-brown epidermis, whitish 

 within, tough and pliable. Taste, sweetish at first, then very acrid ; 

 yields its properties to boiling water. It contains a peculiar principle 

 called clavhnin, which, however, is not active: its activity depends 

 on an acrid resin. The fresh bark applied to the skm will produce 

 vesication. An ointment, made from the bark, has been used to 

 maintain the discharge from blisters. . j + .1. 



Mezereon is a stimulant alterative diaphoretic, if directed to me 

 skin ; it will act also on the kidneys. Used chiefly in combination 

 with others, in chronic skin diseases, chronic rheumatism, and se- 

 condary syphilis. Best given in the form of decoction, made by 

 boiling' 3ij mezereon, and 3ss. liquorice root, in Oiij water down to 

 Oij. Used sometimes as a masticatory in cases of paralysis ot the 



Gfaiacum Wood, and Guaiac. 

 Products of the Guaiacum officinale, an evergreen tree of South 

 America and the West Indies. The wood comes in billets, covered 



Fig. 14. 



with a grayish bark, extremely hard and compact ; the alburnum, 

 or sap wood, is of a yellowish colour; the heart wood of a browmsh- 



